The Landfill, Not Disposal, Best For Garbage

Answer Lady

Q: Which is the lesser of two ecological evils, to put leftover food particles like cucumber pieces down the garbage disposal or into the

garbage?

J.D.,

Newport News

A: Pros and cons exist to either method. Scraps put in the garbage take up landfill space. Foods put down the garbage disposal go into the waste water system; the small amount of organic materials that make it through the water-cleaning process are discharged with the water into receiving bodies like the James River. This organic material competes with the life forms in the water for the oxygen.

But based on my conversations with spokespeople with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C., and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in Richmond, the landfill is the better choice.

Even though it's admirable that you're concerned, you're making a mountain out of a molehill. "It's not like you're disposing of toxic chemicals," says Jolene Chinchilli of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. "Dinner scraps will biodegrade one way or the other."

To skirt the issue altogether, you should be composting those table scraps or eating everything on your plate. Chris Sargent, agricultural extension agent at the Newport News office of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, says even if you're in an apartment, you can have a mini-compost pile in a plastic bag on the balcony. To find out how, call your local extension office for a free publication.

Q: I would like to know if there are any Civil War widows still alive. My husband says it's impossible. However, it seems I read in the paper that wives of Civil War veterans still resided at a home in Richmond.

M.H.,

Hampton

A: Six Confederate soldiers' daughters, not widows, have moved from the Home for Needy Confederate Women to the Health Care Center at Brandermill Woods in Midlothian near Richmond.

"It's conceivable there's a widow somewhere else," says Holly DeJarnette, who is the six ladies' transition coordinator at Brandermill Woods. She adds that those women would have been very young brides.

A spokeswoman with the United Daughters of the Confederacy in Richmond isn't aware of any widows in Virginia. Neither is Art LaBonte, curator at the War Memorial Museum of Virginia in Newport News.

I did learn of South Carolina's lone surviving widow from a 1988 Columbia, S.C., newspaper article. She is Daisy Cave, who was in her early 20s when she married her husband, a Confederate veteran in his 70s. Born in 1891, Cave resides in a Sumter County nursing home.

I called the home and asked to talk to her on the telephone, but she is very hard of hearing, so that wasn't possible.

Q: I have a 15-year-old daughter who wants to get a part-time summer job. We know that she has to have a work permit. The problem is, we don't know of any places that hire youngsters this age. Is there a list or any programs that can help her get started looking for a job?

J.R.W. Jr.,

Langley Air Force Base

A: Call the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry at (800) 284-7292 to request the free publications covering Virginia's child labor laws and the prohibited hazardous occupations for specific ages.

"You'll see which occupations within those industries are permitted under the laws to have a 14- or 15-year-old as an employee. However, for insurance purposes or company policy, some businesses may choose not to hire a 14-year-old," says Elaine Elliott, regional field supervisor for the state's labor law administration in Norfolk.

Elliott says permitted jobs for 15-year-olds include grocery baggers, waiters and waitresses and dishwashers. Your daughter also could cut grass, baby-sit in a child care center or work in the office area of a manufacturing plant.

Q: I'm president of a Gloucester state-certified search and rescue group. We've acquired a 1969 Chevrolet 36-passenger bus we're remodeling to accommodate storage of rescue equipment for transportation to a rescue scene; we will not use it for transporting passengers or victims.

No one wants to provide liability insurance for this vehicle. Do you have any suggestions or contacts for insurance coverage?

D.L.H.,

Gloucester

A: Martin Noffsinger, an independent insurance agent in Newport News, speculates that one of the reasons the insurance companies you've contacted may view this vehicle as a poor risk is there will be a variety of drivers operating it.

"No insurance company has to take a risk if it doesn't want to," says Ken Schrad of the State Corporation Commission, the state's principal regulatory agency for certain businesses.

You have several choices for lining up coverage. You can contact a local agent like Noffsinger, 873-0630. Or, you can call the commission's insurance bureau, which has a consumer section that can help you locate coverage for the vehicle. That number is (800) 552-7945.